In The Godfather: The Game you play a character that didn't actually appear in the film, but still had an important role in the story. It begins nine years before the story starts. An explosion destroys a nearby building and you run in to help. After you beat down a few gangsters you're killed by the Barzini family and your son finds you dead. At this point, the player must customize a new character. Your new character is the son who found his father dead. The game then advances nine years to the wedding from the opening scene of the movie, where your mother asks the Don to look after you and give you work. You start out doing simple jobs and then advance your way up the ladder.

There are several missions, hit contracts, and favors to complete, along with businesses to extort, delivery trucks to hijack, and rackets, warehouses, hubs, and rival family compounds to take over. There are also several "collectibles" such as heisting all banks, cracking all safes, collecting all film reels, obtaining all weapon upgrades, and performing all execution styles. All these things are tied into achievements as well, giving even more incentive to do and collect everything in the game. The game is also very open-ended, meaning you can choose what you want to do next.

The PlayStation Portable version, The Godfather: Mob Wars, is a top-down strategy game, different from the PS2, Xbox and PC versions. The Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 have slightly updated editions with added depth. The main difference is not in the graphics but the city is more easy to navigate, additional "hit" missions (most likely the Nintendo Wii) less repetitive shops, bribing cops having a partner and calling the mob.